One has to remember that free accounts are required for anyone who is not playing host.
This is not true, from their own FAQ
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206175806-Frequent…
Do you need an account to use Zoom?
A Zoom account is not required if you are strictly joining Zoom Meetings as a participant. If someone invites you to their meeting, you can join as a participant without creating an account. However, if the host has restricted joining meetings using authentication profiles, then the participant will need a Zoom account to access the meeting. Learn more about joining a Zoom meeting.
Many of the daily participants won’t have an account. I do occasional have calls with different groups of friends. Usually it is on WhatsApp and occasionally on Zoom
On Zoom it started with 1 of us creating an account but we only could go over 40 mins on 2 calls. So the next user created an account and hosted 2 calls, and then the 3rd user, etc. Eventually everybody had an account as we could only host 2 meetings and go over the 40 min limit.
Most of the time my friends are choosing WhatsApp to start the call but that doesn’t work with the friend is in China. WhatsApp only works through VPN and within China, they really seems to hinder the quality of the call. So then we jump on Zoom.